Quick-Start Installation of SQL Server 2012

The SQL Server Installation Wizard is based on Windows Installer. It provides a single feature tree for installation of the following SQL Server components:

Database Engine

Analysis Services

Reporting Services

Integration Services

Master Data Services

Data Quality Services

Management tools

Connectivity components

You can install each component individually or select a combination of the components listed above. To make the best choice among the editions and components available in SQL Server, see Editions and Components of SQL Server 2012

SQL Server is available in 32-bit and 64-bit editions. SQL Server Setup supports the following installation options:

See Install SQL Server 2012 BI Features for information about installing the features that are part of the Microsoft BI platform, that include Analysis Services, Integration Services, Master Data Services, Reporting Services, and several client applications used for creating or working with analytical data.

By default, sample databases and sample code are not installed as part of SQL Server Setup. To install sample databases and sample code for non-Express editions of SQL Server, see the CodePlex Web site. To read about support for SQL Server sample databases and sample code for SQL Server Express, see Databases and Samples Overview.

After you are finished with SQL Server installation, the next major step is configuration of SQL Server and its components. Use SQL Server utilities to configure SQL Server. For more information, see Configuring SQL Server 2012.

You can find detailed explanations of these tasks in the next section.

Planning a SQL Server Installation

Before you install SQL Server 2012, you must review the hardware and software requirements, network and Internet considerations, and security considerations to install and run SQL Server. For more information, see Planning a SQL Server Installation and also the following topics:

Upgrading to SQL Server

You can upgrade existing instances of SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, or SQL Server 2008 R2 to SQL Server 2012. For more information, see Upgrade to SQL Server 2012. Before running SQL Server Setup to upgrade to SQL Server 2012, review the following topics about the upgrade process:

Describes the Distributed Replay Utility, a tool that can use multiple computers to replay trace data, simulating a mission-critical workload. By performing a replay on a test server before and after a SQL Server upgrade, you can measure performance differences and look for any incompatibilities your application may have with the upgrade.

This section provides information about configuring and uninstalling SQL Server.

Configuring SQL Server 2012

After you have installed SQL Server, you can further configure SQL Server by using graphical and command-prompt utilities. See the following topics to configure SQL Server for the first time:

Description

Topic

Use the information in this topic to determine whether you need to unblock ports in a firewall to allow access to Analysis Services or PowerPivot for SharePoint. You can follow the steps provided in this topic to configure both port and firewall settings.